PPA chasing tweets of bike lane parkers, but not issuing more tickets

About Elizabeth Fiedler

WHYY Urban Life Correspondent Elizabeth Fiedler has interviewed politicians; athletes; and Philadelphians from Fishtown, Norris Square, Point Breeze, Overbrook Farms, Pennsport and many other neighborhoods. From the world's first pizza museum to a neighborhood with an influx of families but no school, she searches for the treasures, trends and tensions that make Philadelphia the most interesting city on the planet. She has also covered crime and education in Chester, Pa., and in Camden, N.J.

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The Philadelphia Parking Authority is cracking down on cars parked in bike lanes.

New numbers from the PPA show the agency and police issued nearly 350 tickets for the offense from January through March.

PPA Deputy Executive Director Corinne O'Connor said the flurry of tickets began since the agency started urging people to report vehicles parked in bike lanes through Twitter.

"You can tweet if you see a vehicle parked in the bike lane," O'Connor said. "That will then automatically go to our Twitter account which will then be forwarded to the ticketing department and then therefore we can send out an enforcement officer to issue a a ticket if the vehicle is still there."

Connor said sometimes the vehicle moves before the enforcement officers show up to issue a ticket.

"I mean you're talking 5, 10, 15 minutes later. But if the vehicle is still parked there they will receive a ticket," she said.

O'Connor said the tickets cost up to $75.

She said during three months of the Unblock Bike Lanes Twitter campaign, the Parking Authority received 55 complaints related to about 30 different blocks. She says Pine Street between 3rd and 20th logged the most complaints.

Even with the social media effort, the numbers haven't changed much.

She said the number of tickets issued during the period is pretty typical.

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